Dave Filoni On Sabine’s Backstory, The Darksaber, Mandalore, & More

With this week’s episode of Star Wars Rebels titled “Legacy of Mandalore” set to expand on the backstory of Sabine, Dave Filoni spent some time speaking with Nerdist about Sabine’s return to Mandalore, the character of Ursa Wren (Sabine’s mother), how the darksaber came to be in the possession of Sabine, and much more. Check out a few paragraphs copied below and be sure to take the supplied source link for the rest of Filoni’s comments.

Series executive producer Dave Filoni told us, “I like to relate Star Wars to real life. I think it’s really not that different than if you haven’t seen your family in a long time, and they can’t see you as a different person. They are not familiar with how you’ve grown. I would think that she’s very concerned on a personal level, as far as what they think of her, and what they’re willing to believe, which is why she never really wanted to go back there. But then she’s also concerned on a political level because her being there has huge ramifications, politically, for her people.”

Specifically, Sabine goes back to Mandalore to face her mother, Ursa Wren. She’s an important leader and well-respected in Clan Wren. In past on-screen stories, Star Wars has explored father issues—Darth Vader and Galen Erso come to mind—but we haven’t spent much time with mothers. “I thought it was a really exciting opportunity because, as you have noted, the mother, the matriarch character in the Star Wars saga–you get a tiny bit of that with Shmi [Skywalker]–but you don’t really see that character type throughout the rest of the saga,” Filoni said. “Here there was an opportunity to have this very strong character, and in a way, it’s interesting because she so powerful. She’s a warrior, she’s a Mandalorian, and she’s a leader of her entire group. I wanted her to appear cold and go against the typical kind of warmth that you think is often identified with a mother. She could be a force of nature that way and I wanted her to clearly be the head of the family politically, maternally, and guiding things. Then we removed the father from that equation, which just adds another level to it.”

The design of Ursa’s armor and the overall look of Clan Wren’s hold stands apart from Sabine’s colorful flair, and that was a deliberate decision. Filoni said, “The designs of the Wrens, I wanted to be reminiscent of Sabine but lacking the color of Sabine, so that you feel that everything Wren is quite a bit desaturated and devoid of the life. They haven’t been living like Sabine has. They’re not as risky as she’s been and ‘out there’ as she’s been. They’ve actually been restrained and suffering by trying to maintain some kind of order, but they are all actually kind of living in fear, even though they’re these great warriors. They have actually become quite weak, and they don’t realize it.”

Located in New York with his wife Dianna, Justin LaSalata is the US Editor of Jedi News responsible for reporting on all areas of Star Wars related news as well as coverage from NY Comic Con and Toy Fair NY.